A small rant, sort of…

For long time readers, this may come as a shock because I’m going to try and briefly set aside my usual “if you don’t have something positive to say, don’t say anything at all” point of view.

I’m feeling a little bad already and I haven’t even written anything yet. It’s because I’ve been thrilled with almost every new addition to TSTO. It’s almost like EA have been reading my mind (or something like that).

Yeah, then there’s the fact that lots of Tappers don’t have the donuts to spare and it really was thoughtful for those folks to receive a free premium item.

Plus it’s also sends out a nice message that good things do come to those who are patient. “Patience Grasshopper”, has always been my motto!

So what was I going to rant about, oh yeah – I paid donuts for the Wailing Wall! Now I have two. My town’s design theme is like me and is reflected clearly in this blog’s tag line ‘Nothing Special…’ I only want one of everything ~ not two! Except maybe for items that I use for fun… for instance, over at Tapped-Out UK some of us hide rabbit hedges around our towns for our neighbor-eenos to find in a game called SUBS.

So okay, now I feel completely petty and selfish but that’s not a bad thing IMHO. Because it shows me that I’m grown-up enough be able recognize the nature of these (or almost any other) feelings

Thank you Zen!
😦 😐 🙂 😀

The Simpsons Tapped Out and Epistemology

Does EA read fan-sites? Who knows. Moving right along… Professor Frink’s ‘Have an Epistemological Argument with Ghosts’ task speaks directly to me though, so-to-speak.

DrewDabble has been around the ‘TSTO Online Block’  (and only as DD BTW*) more than a few times 😉  Been striving to participate in friendly blogging and commentary around the TSTO Global Community for a long time now (at least in Internet viral terms) before a certain TSTO mega-blog ‘changed directions’. Enough said (maybe**) about that bygone era.

Okay, now back on-topic: I’m into Epistemology. No really… Sez-so right here. Since May 9, 2013. Don’t see it? Then ‘Look Closer’ whatever that means. 

So okay, when I went to grab the above screenshot before starting my #1 TSTO Hero – Professor Frink (my discoverer – not avatar***) on a most auspicious task – this scene was pretty much right there. No waiting. No editing. Just cropped it. Honest. Please draw & appreciate your own meanings (to yourselves) and know they are ALL precious to DrewDabble 😐 🙂 😀

*  **  *** will be add here ASAP. Not teasing just gotta get ready because Treehouse of Horror XXIV. It’s airing in 40 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is the TSTO World Getting Back to Normal?

A few thoughts before heading off to work… Looks like the tide may be turning for the good guys. As I hope all Tappers already know, there were several exempts yesterday to make fraudulent posts over at the bad guy’s camp. However, three smelly posts were removed within hours. Yes three – a fourth bogus post got deleted before I could even read it – trying to work the “EA Servers Are Down” angle. The only one remaining is that fake Mr. T post by ‘you-know-who’ titled “I’m Sorry” – and boy ain’t that the truth!

The Internet’s ‘New Tips’ blog TSTOTopix.com is coming along nicely – Piling on over 30,000 hits this weekend… they are off and running!

And when you’ve had your fill of playing TSTO, blog surfing and commenting don’t forget to check-in at Tapped-Out UK. The best description of this site: It’s like your favorite ‘real world’ hang-out, only out here in ‘The Cloud’ 🙂

I’m sorry about all the comments still in moderation. I promise to respond to them as quickly as possible today. Also thanks to mastersneasle over at the awesome Pokémon X and Y Stuff  blog for pointing out that I haven’t stated the ‘Rating Level’ for language in comments here. For the record it’s in the PG-13 neighborhood…  Or, pretty much anything that would be allowed on The Simpsons or Futurama TV shows (or TSTO) I’ll add, DrewDabble is impressed by comments that creatively express their point without excessive ‘potty-month’  😉

Now about my DrewDabble blog – I will be broadening its topic base – plus getting back to the original “Zen Geek” theme (originally envisioned for this blog) that has gotten drowned-out by my TSTO obsession.

So I’ll end on a geeky note by saying how very much I dig the Google Doodle today about Erwin Schrödinger. It never takes a gathering of geeks very long before someone makes a cat-in-the-box reference!

We must be cautious…

To borrow a great Obi–Wan line from Star Wars:  “Mos Eisley Spaceport (by this, I mean the Internet)… You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”

It would seem that in the wake of the mega-hit blog TSTO Tips’ demise there are many websites and blogs scrambling to become ‘the next’ TSTO Tips (and some for profit).Not me, I’m a just a huge fan of Matt Groening (and the pre Level 30 Mr. T). I’m blogging to be helpful in a just-for-the-fun-of-it way and to enhance my (and other Tappers) enjoyment of the game. But since I’m not getting paid to do this (like others on the net seem to be, legally or otherwise), I’ve got to go make a living out in the ‘real world’. I’ll be back later with a lot more – including a full post clarifying this blog’s purpose(s)….

Until then Happy Tapping 🙂

Welcome Back Mr.T!

Mr.T, the recently elusive creator of the mega-popular TSTO Tips Blog has returned, but only briefly for now!

      

He just made a couple of short posts…
http://tstotips.com/2013/07/30/whats-your-favorite-animation/
http://tstotips.com/2013/07/30/poll-what-do-you-think-of-36-hour-tasks/

He says he’s been traveling outside of Wi-Fi coverage in India, Nepal, Burma and now Thailand. He also said he met the Dalai Lama (of whom I’m a HUGE fan). What an awesome privilege! If could meet any sentient being living in the present moment, he would be at the top of my list.

Mr. T also says he has ten days of vacation left. Well here’s wishing him and his family a safe and enjoyable finish to their epic vacation.

I also want to send a huge note of thanks to Mike S. & WerdnaSimpson for the terrific job they’ve done minding the store at TSTO Tips while Mr. T has been away! Moderating that mega-hit blog must be exhausting!

A small confession…

I really do plan to blog volumes about my lifelong geeky nature (and some of the amazing adventures [and misfortunes] it has taken me on), but I’m not in a big rush to do so. After all, I’ve been working on this a long time. I mean – A LONG TIME. I’ve been putting little bits of content online since before most people even heard of ‘online’. In that bleak era I call ”BTI” (Before The Internet) using the 1980’s BBS technology.

Now for that small confession: The specific reason that this “DrewDabble” blog exists (at this specific moment) is not to fulfill dreams of unleashing my inner Earl Hamner or to become some sort of Digital Sage sharing my journey towards enlightenment. It’s simply because I’ve become blissfully addicted to one of those newfangled freemium games… EA Mobile’s “The Simpsons: Tapped Out” (TSTO). As the advertisement says, it is LIFE RUININGLY FUN. Soon after getting hooked on TSTO (late February 2013); I found the TSTO Tips blog – which (as I’ve commented there many times) is an indispensable companion to the game.

Having your own WordPress (WP) blog facilitates commenting on other WP blogs like TSTO Tips. However, I did not want to have an ‘empty shell’ of a blog, so I went ahead and made a couple of small (but sincere) posts. I’ll be making many more as time permits. I’ll try to do a new Geeky DrewBabble post in the next few days. However EA has just graced us with yet more new content (Level 32) and that’s bound to set me back a good day or two. 😉

Meanwhile, if you are a dedicated Simpsons Tapped Out player (Tapper) please check out my latest screenshots from the game on my Flickr account. I’m actually trying a little experiment there right now. Until the controversial Level 30, I had pretty much blown through all the game dialog (or dialogue). If you are a word-geek like me, this is quality content that’s as enjoyable as actual game play. Starting with Level 31 (again, time permitting) I will be posting complete composite paste-up images of all the game’s dialog pop-ups in (what I guess you’d call) pictorial walkthroughs. The best way to access these walkthroughs is go to my Flickr ‘Sets’ page and click/tap the Set with the level you want to see. This will present images in the correct order level by level.

BTW: Flickr (IMO) has leapfrogged to the front of the pack in the photo sharing realm. It brilliantly handles full resolution images in an ultra-easy to manage UI. I’m a very visual person and foresee a beautiful relationship with Flickr. So much so, I’ll be doing a full post talking-up Flickr soon!

What are geeks and what do they have to do with icy couches?

Please note (as if anybody besides me will ever read this)…  At least until I’ve explored this topic to my satisfaction, everything I write in this blog is (more or less) striving towards a deeper understanding of this “icy couch” notion that I’ve been trying to get my head around for over a decade, thanks in large part to insightful books by Hubert Benoit and CJ Beck.

What is a geek? Over the past couple of decades, it’s a word that’s become generically associated with people that are good at working with computers (aka information technology). Actually that’s the best possible connotation of the word. Other meanings (depending on one’s point of view) are somewhat less flattering.

A quick Google search yields two definitions for “geek”:

1. An unfashionable or socially inept person.
2. A person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest: “a computer geek”.

Big surprise, I work in information technology. When my clients call me “their computer geek”, I wear it like a badge of pride. This is not resting on the icy couch. Most things involving positive feelings of pride are warm and fuzzy… the very opposite of icy couch.

Here comes some icy couch… I’m so socially “awkward” (“inept” is a bit of an overstatement in my particular case) it’s amazing I even have any clients. It seems the very thing that makes me good at my profession also turns out to be a fairly serious character flaw. Yeah, how’s this for a professional tagline: “If you can tolerate being around me, I can most definitely help you with your IT needs”.  Not a warm and fuzzy thought to have about one’s self.  In fact, it’s cold and hard like (drumroll please) an icy couch.

Icy couch is not morbid or fatalistic. It’s not grim or negative, at all. It is simply accepting that the human mind generates an endless stream of both comfortable and unconformable thoughts (emotions, feelings, whatever you call them). Most contemporary western mindsets try to minimize (if not, completely eliminate) the unconformable aspect. Maybe it’s just human nature. I, personally, have spent several insight-less decades trying my best to ignore anything that takes me outside of my psychological comfort-zone.

I consider it most fortunate to have become aware of the benefits of being able to restfully “stay with” thoughts that would otherwise leave my mind very agitated and upset.

This is a good place to stop. Maybe in the next post I’ll pick up with what I mean by “stay with”.

UPDATE – 8/12/2013: The third post on blog this was going to be about the notion of  ‘stay with’. In the mean time The Simpsons Tapped Out game blissfully ruined my life. I will be posting a lot more on what I call ‘Geek/Zen’.

Welcome

An icy couch? Sounds pretty uncomfortable, but with some practice, it can become the most restful place you’ve ever known. I seek knowledge, whatever that means. Dabbling is my primary method of knowledge acquisition. I’m a geek.

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